Re: What are a programmer's rights to what he writes? -- MIDRANGE-L

If you truly think that success requires a company to stifle creativity 
by maintaining total control over; source, programmer and development
direction then you should read Leading Change by Tom Kotter and apply it
to this discussion. 
 

tstockwell@dhagroup.com wrote:
> 
> >years ago, a woman's right activist spoke to dpma.  one of her themes
> >was equal pay.  an example she had was a secretary should make the same
> >salary as her boss, because the secretary works just as hard.
> 
> >one of the members, sitting across from me was very angry.  he made a
> >comment i haven't forgotten, even though this was 20+ years ago.  he
> >commented that it is wrong to expect rewards without taking
> >responsibility.
> 
> The key to management success, unfortunately, is to maintain ownership while
> delegating responsibility.  IBM's managment style is renown for this 
>technique,
> and many other larger organizations use it quite successfully as well.  If a
> project succeeds, despite the obstacles that the manager places in front of 
>his
> people, he gets the credit; if it fails, the underlings get the boot.  So this
> management style requires that you keep as many bodies between you and the 
>exit
> door as possible, just in case things don't go too well.  Or, better yet,
> sub-contract out as many responsibilities as you can so that the blame is
> equally spread across all resoures.
> 
> Yeah, it's wrong to expect rewards without responsibility, but isn't it also
> wrong to expect ownership in a creative act such as programming without risk?
> How many times have you looked at a piece of code and said "Man! How'd he get
> away with that?"  Or, the flip side: Look at Outlook email client and the 
>virus
> plague!  Microsoft owns Outlook, created an architecture with great security
> risks embedded in the integration of the system, and takes no responsibility 
>for
> the outcome of an epidemic of security problems.  In that scenario, I'll bet 
>you
> the "secretary" who wanted equal pay with her boss would have fixed that 
>problem
> the first time the Melissa virus hit her boss's address book.  Goodness knows,
> "she" would have been responsible for straightening it out.
> 
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--
L. S. Russell Programmer/Analyst
Datrek Professional Bags, Inc.
2413 Industrial Drive
Springfield, TN. 37172
mailto:leslier@datrek.com
http://www.datrek.com
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